Bayou Classic brings about 200,000 visitors to town this weekend

Thanksgiving, the Saints game and the kick-off to the holiday shopping season may drive conversation in much of the city during the next few days, but the hospitality industry has already turned its attention to the 37th annual State Farm Bayou Classic, the annual gathering of students, alumni and fans of Southern University and Grambling University that in recent years has provided a $30 million economic impact to the city.

View full sizeTimes-Picayune archiveOne of Grambling University's drum majors sports an old-fashioned tux and hat as he dances on the field with the rest of the band at the 2007 Bayou Classic in the Superdome.

Ninety-five percent of the Loew's New Orleans Hotel has already been booked for Friday night, the Poydras Street property's general manager David Bilbe said. The hotel is 90 percent occupied on Saturday. Bilbe is expecting a sellout.

"We expect to get a couple of last minute reservations," Bilbe said. "And it's pretty traditional for us to fill up with familiar faces."

This year's Bayou Classic celebration kicks off with a job fair on Friday and culminates with the football game in the Superdome on Saturday. This is the 15th year that State Farm has been the event's title sponsor.

About 200,000 people are expected to descend on the city for events associated with the classic, including a battle of the college bands, New Orleans Metropolitan & Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Kelly Schulz said.

As of early Wednesday, the average hotel occupancy was 80 percent, according to an informal survey of hotels conducted by the visitors bureau. Last year, a survey of those CVB member hotels reported total citywide occupancy of 90 percent at the end of the weekend, Schulz said.

Although hotel occupancy is relatively strong, sales of game tickets have been a little softer this year at Southern University, according to observations from the university's staff.

"It's not as good as last year," Aretha Hunt, ticket manager at Southern University said of this year's game ticket sales. "It's been a little quiet this year."

Times-Picayune archiveBayou Classic weekend is traditionally a time of traffic gridlock on Canal Street and near the French Quarter.

Hunt attributes the low sales to the economy and the football team's poor performance this year. The Jaguars are 2-8 going into this Saturday's game.

But at Grambling, which is given the same number of tickets to sell as Southern, sales have been "going great," athletic business manager Terence Bradford said, though Bradford said the school did return about half of its tickets to Ticketmaster to sell to the public. Roughly the same amount is returned each year. The Tigers's are 8-2 heading into the annual match up with Southern.

"From what I can tell, it's pretty close to last year," Bradford said.

In recent years, the Bayou Classic has become less about football than it is about the festive meeting of rival teams, bands and fraternities and sororities in competition for bragging rights until the next year. Unlike in past years, this year's event will also include a daylong health fair on Saturday at Champions Square.

Whichever football team wins Saturday's game will take the lead in the head-to-head competition, as the teams have 18 wins each going into the battle.